David Chase talks about 10 musical "Sopranos' moments

AN SUV barrels out of the Lincoln Tunnel and cruises the streets of Hudson and Essex counties, accompanied by the down and dirty blues/synth beat of A3's "Woke Up This Morning," and already you're in the right frame of mind to enter Tony Soprano's world.

The soundtrack of "The Sopranos" has always been a character in its own right, setting mood, pumping up the emotions of a scene, illustrating character down to a fine point. (Think Tony B.'s stuck-in-the-'80s "We Are the Champions" ringtone, or Paulie with his delusions of grandeur declaring Sinatra's "Nancy (with the Laughing Face)" as " my song.")

Most of the songs are picked by creator David Chase, a former garage band drummer who had plenty of practice picking music for "Almost Grown," a short-lived `80s drama about a radio station program director. Chase's selections are so on the money that they get the seal of approval from the show's other musical expert, Steve Van Zandt.

"David just has impeccable taste," says Van Zandt, who will devote Sunday night's edition of his "Underground Garage" radio show to "Sopranos" songs. "He knows how to either marry a song to a scene or have it be in deliberate juxtaposition to a scene."

I asked Chase to talk about the origins of 10 of the show's best musical moments. In chronological order:

* The song: The classic lullaby "All Through the Night" (in season one's "Denial, Anger, Acceptance")

The scene: As Tony and Carmela beam at Meadow and her school choir's holiday performance, Mikey Palmice shoots Christopher's friend Brendan in the bathtub.

Chase: "If you look back on it, that's a `Godfather' move. I don't think I realized it at the time."

* The song: Frank Sinatra's wistful "It Was A Very Good Year" (in season two's "Guy Walks Into a Psychiatrist's Office")

The scene: The first of the season-opening montages, as we catch up on what all the characters have been up to (Livia doing physical therapy, Dr. Melfi working out of a motel room, Meadow learning to drive, Tony catting around, etc.) since the end of the surprisingly successful season one.

Chase: "It was a very good year. Our first year was a really good year."

The scene: Tony, Paulie and Silvio confront Pussy about working with the FBI, then kill him.

Chase: "Musically, that song is so interesting and lilting and just floats, you know. It had nothing do with the fact of money or jewels. Sometimes, these lyrics kind of get in the way."

* The song: A mash-up (in the days before most people knew what a mash-up was) of The Police's "Every Breath You Take" and the theme from the `50s private eye show "Peter Gunn" (in season three's "Mr. Ruggerio's Neighborhood")

The scene: FBI agents trail members of the Soprano family as they prepare to plant a listening device in Tony's basement.

Chase: "My wife said, `You know that "Every Breath You Take" and the "Peter Gunn" theme are the same song?' And we played them and I said, `Oh, they sort of are.' She has songwriting credit on that episode. `Every breath you take, I'll be watching you' was interesting for that sequence, and `Peter Gunn' is the feds' gangbuster music."

* The song: The Kinks' dread-filled "Living on a Thin Line" (in season three's "University")

The scene: Used both as the dancing music for Tracee the stripper and a recurring theme to suggest her impending demise.

Chase: "There is this lyric, `There's no England now.' I get chills thinking about that now, as we're talking about it."

(Writer/producer Terence Winter adds, "I've got more e-mails and questions from friends about what that song was than anything else we've used in the show's history.")

The scene: Used twice, first as Carmela feels lonely and unwanted as she waits in the hall of Meadow's dorm; then, after debating whether to leave Tony, she gets him to donate a big chunk of money to Meadow's school, just so she can feel he did one nice thing for her lately.

Chase: "It's just a beautiful song. Nils' guitar playing is luminous."

* The song: The relentless beat of "World Destruction," by Time Zone (in season four's "For All Debts Public and Private")

The scene: First heard as Tony waddles down the driveway to get his season-opening copy of The Star-Ledger, then again at the end as Christopher pins the $20 bill he took from the cop who allegedly killed his father to his mother's fridge.

Chase: "That episode was written the week of Sept. 11, or there-abouts. Very presciently, Afrika Bambaataa and John Lydon had sung about (being brainwashed by religion). That song's from, what, 1985? And there's this line, `The Democratic-Communist Relationship won't stand in the way of the Islamic force.'"

* The song: "Dawn (Go Away)," by Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons (in season four's "Christopher")

The scene: On the way back from an Indian casino where they've just been blackmailed into booking Frankie Valli, Tony and Silvio have a debate about Italian-American pride and harmful stereotypes. Tony replies to Sil's last opinion by barking, "Take it up with Frankie Valli when you talk to him" a split-second before the credits roll and the song cues up.

Chase: (laughing) "You may not know this, but the Four Seasons are Italian-American. . . And that scene was about Italian-Americans. It had to do with that whole thing Tony's telling Silvio about class differences."

The scene: After giving Assemblyman Zellman the okay to date his ex-mistress Irina, Tony hears "Oh, Girl" on his car stereo and starts to cry. So he drives to Zellman's house, gives Irina a possessive, yearning look and savagely beats Zellman with a belt.

Chase: "Just a great song. Certain people who really run from their emotions are very sentimental. It's hard for them to acknowledge true emotions, but they wallow in sentimentality. And that kind of a song, if you're driving along, late at night and that song comes on, it gets you."

* The song: Another Kinks number, "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" (in season five's "Cold Cuts")

The scene: Tony is annoyed to see that Janice's anger management therapy is working much better for her than his sessions with Melfi ever have for him, so he so thoroughly humiliates her at dinner that she descends into a homicidal rage -- at which point Tony triumphantly exits and walks home, accompanied by The Kinks.

Chase: (laughing) "This one's pretty self-explanatory. . . My favorite thing about that song is it's a live version, and Ray Davies is singing, and then he says, `What are ya?' and 10,000 people say in unison, `I'm not like everybody else!'"